Random thoughts on technology, business, economics, new media, politics, local affairs in the Capital Region, music, the collapse of community, the corruption of the American Dream, fighting the evil bastards amongst us and suggestions for fixing this fucking mess.

"I ain't here to make friends, cowboy; I'm here to tell you the ugly truth. So you might as well get out of that warm bed and deal with it."

Nov 29, 2011

It seems that individuals' attention spans are increasingly being shortened. Two recent examples lead to such a conclusion:

The first is a viral video clip of a recorded CBS News piece, where an autistic high school lad is given the chance to finally shift from being the varsity hoop team's ball boy to getting into a real game for some real action. He then proceeds to nail three-pointers from all over the court in what truly is an exhilarating experience just to watch. You've likely seen it.

The problem is that this all happened several years ago. I even recall the kid visiting President George W bush as a result. But the peep's on Facebook are pushing this thing around as if it happened yesterday. Didn't they see if a few years back? My sense is that they did; it just didn't last for too many cycles in the old memory bank.

Example Two hits a bit closer to home. We read of the debunking of the local urban legend of Don McLean having written all or part of American Pie in the Tin N Lint saloon in Saratoga. It ends up that it really didn't happen. Someone finally asked Mr McLean, directly!

But lo and behold, guess what? Yes. Someone published this very same expose back in 2003, using the same "how about we just ring the guy up and ask him?" technique used by the intrepid reporter at the Post Star this week. The name of that original debunking journalist? Robert Millis, as published in the Tech Valley Times newspaper on July of that year,.

But the new kid on the block likely knew nothing about that story, right? Indeed, we'll give in on that, considering that the archive of the original piece is not online and subject to Google indexing.

BUT -- and there is the Conspiracy Theory in me at work -- this very topic WAS a very recent and lengthy discussion on the Facebook Group "You Must Be From Saratoga Springs If..." Yep, the point was made that Yours Truly called the bluffs on this bit of Toga folklore a decade eight years ago.